Steven G. Sachs

Citation patterns in instructional development literature

The field of instructional development is diverse in both its foundations and practice. Within the field there are a number of different approaches. This article reports on a study of the citations in the ID literature that identifies patterns among those citations. Those patterns, referred to as invisible colleges, represent groups of individuals who are linked by a common set of ideas or a common approach. Authors who are repeatedly cited together form the hub of these invisible college networks and exert the most influence. This particular study found eight invisible colleges in the ID field and ten authors who seem to dominate the literature. As a whole, the ID literature was weakly based on previous work and included a great many reports from developers working on their own ideas with little regard for the work of others that had gone on before.

Doctoral dissertations in instructional design and technology, 1977 through 1988

This is a summary of data on doctoral dissertations completed in instructional design and technology programs over the period 1977–88. During this period, 1,518 dissertations were completed at 46 different institutions, with nearly half completed at only 7 institutions. The 1,518 dissertations were chaired by 286 different professors, but approximately half were chaired by just 39 professors. The number per professor ranged from 89 to 1. Output was fairly steady over the 12 years, averaging 127 per year, with a low of 106 in 1980 and a high of 149 in 1983 and 1985.

Teaching thinking skills to distant learners

SummaryWhile it would be convenient if students did not have to be taught to think, that is not the case. This is true for distant learners just as much as for those in the traditional classroom. Strategies for working with distant learners require that these students have a model set of procedures to follow and that they produce results that show their thought processes. Giving the distant learner at least three separate practice exercises with feedback in between will help stress the importance of the thinking procedures. Hopefully, they will become a reference tool the student can turn to on other occasions when ‘thinking’ is required.

An objective approach to scoring essays

SummaryThe analytical approach for scoring essays allows an instructor to be fairly objective. It consists of four steps: (a) specifying the features the answer must contain; (b) specifying the criteria for judging the adequacy of each feature; (c) assigning point values to each of the criteria; and (d) reading each student’s answer using the criteria to help determine the student’s score.In spite of several problems the analytical approach may present, I prefer it because it is more objective and thus enables instructors to score essays more accurately. I feel good about this, and so do the instructors I work with. Maybe you should try to convince the instructors you work with to use the analytical approach. It could have a salutary effect on the instructors, on their students, and on you.